After a weekend in which Formula One’s brave new world received a barrage of criticism, this was the race to make the naysayers feel ever so slightly foolish, as the sport’s new era burst into life in spectacular fashion.

Even Nico Rosberg, who came second in a pulsating race-long duel with his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, was good enough to admit that this was a day when the sport flourished. It glowed with as much lustre as the 50,000 bulbs which illuminated countless scraps right the way down the field.

All the talk of how F1’s new rules had stifled competition, leaving little more than a series of fuel economy runs, was on the basis of the Bahrain Grand Prix astonishingly premature. So much for “taxi-cab” racing.

Earlier in the day, Bernie Ecclestone opined that the state of the sport was “unacceptable” to the public. You would be hard pushed to find a spectator on television or in the record crowd who agreed with the 83-year-old on Sunday’s evidence. The fireworks after the race, so often inappropriate after a drab race, were more than called for.

One of the hybrid era’s arch defenders, Paddy Lowe, the Mercedes executive director (technical) – who endured the stress of watching his drivers come within inches of disaster – even suggested he was more satisfied with the result for the sport than consecutive one-two victories.

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“That made me happier than anything,” Lowe said. “It was one of the best races in a decade.”

Mercedes, whose dominance over the rest of the field was abundantly apparent in 57 laps under the lights, should be applauded for allowing their drivers to race when the stakes could not be higher.

The Rosberg-Hamilton rivalry has often been likened to that of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, and while at present it lacks the bitterness, the racing on Sunday was some of the finest seen in years. The lead changed hands on countless occasions, with Hamilton defending firmly but magnificently on worse rubber in the closing stages.

Since it became obvious that Mercedes were the dominant outfit, we have been waiting for a ferocious battle between the two, and they duly delivered. Throughout the race they were in a class of their own, with the German repeatedly finding his way through for a corner or so, only to see the Briton sweep back past.

“I thought I got him about nine times,” Rosberg said later. Like the boys who raced through the ranks in karting, the German nearly rugby tackled Hamilton as they celebrated with the team, so great was his frustration at missing out on victory.

The Briton said that he had not enjoyed a race so close and thrilling since his karting days. “It was one of the toughest situations I’ve been in for a long time,” he said.

However, it was not just the Mercedes dicing for position. The Red Bulls, Ferraris, Williams, and Force India were all locked in spectacular tussles. Sergio Perez eventually emerged victorious in the battle for third, delivering his first podium since 2012 and Force India’s first for five years. He held off Daniel Ricciardo, who has surely exceeded expectations in his first three races for Red Bull, beating his world champion team-mate fairly and squarely, showing superb race craft all evening.

The race began in frenetic fashion, and that is how it stayed through 57 pulsating laps. Hamilton made an excellent start, edging ahead of Rosberg into the first corner. The German would not easily yield, however. Fairly but decisively, Hamilton squeezed him outside the confines of the track and turn four, and maintained a lead of around a second through the opening laps. It was ding-dong stuff; the kind of racing which has been so absent from the opening two races.

The Mercedes were in a class of their own, but the racing was equally exciting behind. The Williams and the Force India were battling away, Ricciardo closed on his team-mate further down the field.

“Seb, let Daniel go through please,” was the instruction the world champion received on lap 16, and he duly complied. But then a few laps later a duel of epic proportions broke out between the Mercedes drivers at the front. The lead changed hands four times within the space of a few, electrifying minutes. This was not tyre saving, fuel saving, or anything of the sort. It was two drivers giving everything to desperately cling on to the lead of the grand prix.

The pace of the action did not relent. After Hamilton tried to establish a gap, on a different strategy to his team-mate, the safety car was called into action on lap 42 after Pastor Maldonado completely wiped out Esteban Gutiérrez. It was a terrifying moment for the Mexican, who was sent flipping through the air at one.

The lull favoured Rosberg, who was now on softer rubber after pitting under the safety car. Lowe came over the radio to tell his Mercedes drivers: “With 10 laps left to race, let’s just make sure we bring both cars home.”

They did just that, but not without the lead changing on another four or five occasions. Hamilton held on to move within 11 points of Rosberg, and deliver his first back-to-back wins since 2010.

On the evidence of Sunday, this year’s world championship will be an enthralling battle between the pair all year long. It is one that after all the doubts, the sport badly needs.